


Flight And Fight

by tielan



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bucky Barnes and the 21st Century, Bucky Didn't Fall From The Train, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-05
Updated: 2019-09-05
Packaged: 2020-10-10 11:54:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20527616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/pseuds/tielan
Summary: After New York, S.H.I.E.L.D is somewhere to work while he’s working out who he’s going to be here in the future. And, God, the future isamazing.





	Flight And Fight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Huntress79](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Huntress79/gifts).

He takes up the shield and the mission, because someone has to.

_That little guy who didn’t know how to give up? I’m following him._

Bucky’s still following Steve, doing what Steve would have done if it had been Bucky who fell from the train – destroying HYDRA base by base by base, confronting the Red Skull. And when it all comes down to a flight across the ocean to save America, Peggy’s snark about how _dare _he leave her mourning him as well as Steve rings in his ears as he steers the plane out into icy water—

_Steve, you’d goddamn better not be fighting St Peter at the gate—_

Bucky wakes up in the future.

* * *

The organisation that followed after the SSR – S.H.I.E.L.D – is headed by a black man who’d probably have given Old Chester a run for intimidating. Probably. Bucky kinda hopes Jonesy got to meet this guy because he’d have loved that. He imagines Jonesy did – according to the lookup, he only died a half-dozen years ago, surrounded by kids, grandkids, and even a couple of greats.

Bucky can’t bring himself to look up the others, not at first. And there’s a whole world out there that’s just…dizzying. Amazing, beyond anything he ever imagined – maybe even beyond anything Howard ever imagined—

Or maybe not.

“You found the Tesseract.”

Big, black, and leather-clad goes by the name of Nick Fury. “Howard Stark found it early on in the search for you.”

“And kept it. Because of course he did.” _Goddammit, Howard._

Bucky’s not a natural leader; that was Steve’s skill. But he learned a few things, he knows to look for what motivates people, and he knows how to deal with an asshole like Tony Stark – probably because he’s one himself.

Well, Howard was a bit of an asshole, too – but he was an asshole whom Bucky _knew_ and so didn’t mind so much.

They butt heads over Loki, the helicarrier, S.H.I.E.L.D, and saving New York. Bucky wouldn’t mind if they butted balls, too, but Stark is very much into his utterly gorgeous and terrifyingly capable redhead, which Bucky absolutely understands. He’d suggest a threesome if Ms. Potts was interested, but one snarky dark-haired guy at a time is probably more than enough for her.

And it’s not like he’s starved of choice. Frankly, the future is full of intelligent, capable dames who know what they want and how to get it. This is particularly noticeable in S.H.I.E.L.D, since Peggy started it. An organisation full of strong, clever, competent women who are terrifying.

There’s Maria Hill, who looks at him like she’d toss him off the edge of the helicarrier at 30,000 feet and never bat an eyelash. Her bite is just as sharp as her bark but that she’ll mitigate the bark if she thinks you need coddling. Bucky makes sure she never thinks he needs coddling, because he likes the bark – _and _because he doesn’t need coddling.

There’s Natasha Romanov, the Black Widow, who smiles like a starlet, moves like a model, and keeps secrets like a spy. She’s sweet and deadly, and Bucky doesn’t understand why more men don’t recognise this. Then again, he remembers the ‘Russian witches’ of the war; the sweet and deadly snipers who worked with the Howling Commandos more than once.

And there’s Sharon Carter, who’s supposed to be ‘the girl next door’ but who Bucky makes when she makes a twisting gesture with one hand that’s exactly like the one that Peggy makes when she’s trying to explain something to Bucky from her hospice bed.

The first time he sees Peggy, though, he’s glad Steve’s dead.

Because Peggy got over her heartbreak, met and married another soldier, had kids, raised them, and is presently occupying a hospice bed while struggling with dementia and memory loss. And sometimes she forgets that she’s ninety and talks to Bucky like they’re twenty again, young and fervent with the blood of the war running through their veins.

Technically, Bucky’s still in his twenties. He feels a lot older though.

* * *

After New York, S.H.I.E.L.D is somewhere to work while he’s working out who he’s going to be here in the future.

And, God, the future is _amazing_.

Technology is just the start of it. Communication, medical advances, women's liberation, racial respect, information... The world is _huge_ and sometimes Bucky's just so damn disappointed that he won't get to experience it _all_. He thought going to Europe for the war was big, but this? This is the whole goddamn world.

Sometimes, though, he thinks he'd like to have someone to share it with. A friend or companion, someone to talk to, to understand. He was always more social than Steve, who found a handful of people he connected with and didn’t really push beyond that.

And while there are people who are more than happy to be friendly with Bucky Barnes, Captain America, he...well, it’s not that he distrusts their motives, it’s just that he’s not comfortable with the lionization. Steve was the hero; Bucky was just the guy following him into hell.

He doesn’t quite know why he brings it up to Maria Hill at their regular weekly meeting. Maybe because he likes seeing how she responds to the things he brings to her – it’s not always what he expects. She was assigned to be his ‘contact in the modern world’ and was distinctly unhappy about it in the beginning. However, Bucky likes to think he’s warmed her up to him.

A little, anyway.

"I don't know what you expect me to do about it," Maria Hill says shortly from safely behind her desk. "You're a good-looking, socially capable man fully able to make friends without anyone holding his hand."

"Good looking?" Bucky checks, just to see her roll her eyes.

It's fun prodding Hill, as much because he suspects that she knows exactly what he's doing and is humoring him. The shared drama of the joke is far more enjoyable than either of them trying to get a rise out of the other. Still, poking her doesn’t solve his problem. Or give him any idea of how he could fix the situation. "Look, I'm not... I'm just... S.H.I.E.L.D is work. The STRIKE teams are work. Even Tony Stark is work....”

“Yes, but that’s not related to his role in world security.” Hill drops the quip deadpan, then hastily covers. "And I reiterate: I don't know what you expect me to do about that."

"You could start by coming with me to the Smithsonian to see the Captain America Exhibit." He throws it out there randomly, almost as a joke, then realises that it’s not a bad idea.

Bucky's been thinking about going to see that exhibit for a while. He'd like to know what they say about him and Steve and the guys seventy years later. He needs to know where they ended up, just so he can work out what happens next – how to either live up to the legends that they made of Steve, him, and the Howling Commandos, or how to walk away.

"Because you couldn't possibly go alone?"

"I'd like company. It's you, the STRIKE teams, or Romanoff, and I don't think she likes me."

"She works with you."

"She works with the guys in STRIKE and she doesn't like them either." Bucky hesitates before making his next comment, but then he figures that Hill probably knows anyway. "I don't think the STRIKE teams like me, either."

"Truthfully? The STRIKE guys don't like anyone who isn't part of their cabal. And, yes, it _is _a cabal." Hill’s smile is distinctly sour. "They get the job done - mostly - we leave them alone."

"Well, they're not friendly, and I don't think they'd like a trip out to the Smithsonian this weekend."

"And what makes you think I would?"

"Well, nothing, actually." Bucky gives her his best grin. "But I thought you'd maybe take pity on an old man."

This time, Hill rolls her eyes so hard that thunder cracks outside, making them both jump.

"See," Bucky says brightly, "even Thor thinks you should come out to the Smithsonian this weekend!"

The look Hill gives him could curdle milk and turn eggs rotten. She sits back in her chair with a huff. "You can't tell me that nobody in all the world has tried to make friends with you up until now."

"Plenty of people have. But I don't trust their motives." And...well, S.H.I.E.L.D _is _full of competent, bold women who know exactly what they want and aren't behindhand about going for it, but Bucky doesn't much like the feeling of being hunted. It’s not the sexism of a woman chasing him that bothers him so much as the calculation in it. "I know yours."

"You do?"

He shrugs with one shoulder. "I'm useful. Better than the STRIKE teams, not as flexible as Romanov. Good enough that your assistant let me in the door without giving me the run around, but not enough of a pain in the butt that you're telling me to bug out. I wouldn't say you _like_ me, but you don't _dislike _me either, and I know that because you're possibly nearly as bad at acting as Steve was."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Yeah, like that. Except Steve didn't do the super prissy polite thing, he just stood there and refused to budge. Which was weird, because before he took the serum, he was just...irritated with everything. And then he took the serum and became...well, Captain America, and suddenly he didn't get into fights anymore - at least, not fights with assholes who didn't count. He...just went for the big guns."

Goddamn but Bucky misses Steve.

"Perhaps because he discovered that when he went after the assholes who didn't count, he became the asshole?"

"See," Bucky leaps on her question. "You get it. Maybe that's why I like you."

"Because I remind you of your dead buddy. I'm flattered."

"If you'd met Steve, you would be." Bucky considers this for a moment, then adds, "Probably."

Hill nearly sags in her chair, and her hands lift to scrape through the loose strands of her bob. "If I say 'yes' will you go away and let me finish my work?"

"I'll let you finish your work either way. I'd just like an answer. Otherwise I'll have to scour the streets of DC for someone else to drag along." He could try the Air Force vet he's met while running in the mornings. Wilson works down at the VA and does good conversation and practical advice. And maybe he’ll grab the other guy and drag him out for a beer – or a drink of choice sometime - but for the Smithsonian, Bucky also wants someone who can answer his questions about S.H.I.E.L.D and the SSR, who knows the internal legends of the Howling Commandos and what became of them after the war.

And, weirdly, in spite of the fact that he was assigned to Hill and it’s her job to keep an eye on him, he doesn’t feel like she’s watching him, studying him, cataloguing his weaknesses and responses.

Hill watches him for nearly thirty seconds, saying nothing, barely moving as she studies him. She's probably weighing up pros and cons in her head. It might even be that she's mentally stripping him naked, although Bucky doubts that. Finally, she leans over and taps on her phone to open it and pull up her calendar.

"I have six hours on Sunday, from 1030 hours."

Six hours is way more than Bucky expected from her. He’d have been happy with an hour, but he’s smart enough not to mention this at least. "I can pick you up on the bike."

"I'd rather meet you at the Smithsonian."

"Call me a cynic, but I don't trust that you wouldn't stand me up."

"You're a cynic."

"But not wrong?" Bucky smiles when she doesn't say anything, and stands. "I'll see you on Sunday, Hill."


End file.
